Lightings systems serve many important purposes, such as navigational aids for aircrafts, boats, or other vehicles, and providing guidance, signaling, and demarcation functions and the like. As with most electrical devices, these lighting systems require a steady supply of electrical power to operate, either through hardwiring via powerlines connected to power plants, or where hardwiring is not possible, through means such as batteries, generators, and solar power. These alternative power sources, however, have many drawbacks. For example, batteries and generators often have short operating lives before needing recharging, replacement and/or refueling. Similarly, solar power requires the need for expensive solar cells that utilize large surface areas and are often expensive, fragile, and vulnerable to the elements. Moreover, contact with sunlight is not constant, and operation in cloudy conditions or at night requires the use of storage batteries.
There are many instances where power sources are not available and recharging, refueling or maintenance is impractical or impossible. For example, in certain military applications, such as for the demarcation of a temporary landing sites in remote locations, the lighting apparatus must be portable, quickly deployable and able to illuminate for long periods of time without the aid of electrical power, refueling or recharging. In other instances, illumination is required for signs and emergency lighting in aircraft, ships, trains and buildings where electrical power is not available.
As such, it would be advantageous to provide a self-contained and self-powered illumination device that provides long-lasting, uninterrupted power for the generation of light.